Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Our friends Lauren and Justin are getting married in about 6 weeks. And today on her blog she is asking people to give feedback, advice and/ or share memories from their wedding day. Apparently I suck at taking pictures of pictures, believe me this was the best one of the 10 I took/ 15 I deleted. Lauren, please feel free to gain inspiration from this picture!

Matt and I got married 7 years ago, July 7, 2001 in Charleston, SC. It was one of the hottest days of the summer and our reception was outside, in my parents yard. My dress, which I try on every year on my anniversary, was not strapless, however if I could do it again it would be. It was very Jackie Oish with a scoop neck that followed to a V down my back with satin covered buttons. The whole strapless thing was just starting back then and I didn't feel brave enough to try it. Our bridesmaid dresses were periwinkle, they were strapless. I guess I was brave enough to put my girls in them, but not for me. The flowers were a gorgeous mix of all kinds of wildflower looking flowers, the main flower that tied my bouquet and the bridesmaids was a delphinium. What a beauty, every time I gaze at that little purple flower it reminds me of the day I said, I do (you'll have to ask Matt about that moment later on.)

Ok so wedding advice: relax, the day only happens one time, in fact I was so nervous the day of, that I seriously blew chunks that morning, yeah seriously. Umm, practice smiling before the big day, otherwise your cheek muscles will really get tired that day. Eat your cake, I know I we had "the bite" but I don't remember really eating a piece. And don't worry about rushing out of your reception, you will want to say hi to everyone but our feelings won't get hurt if you get on out of there to go be with your new husband, we'll understand! So, there you have it, Lauren and Justin the Hannams are excited to celebrate you in just a few weeks!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Matt and I love to go away together, we did a lot before Ollie was born and have tried to do it as much as possible since but it's not as easy to run away. So when we do we want to make it worth the wait. We love to stay at Bed and Breakfasts! I know some people get freaked out about the whole concept of sleeping in a house with other people right beside you but believe me, it is worth the try.

Here's my review of the the whole B and B scene, for what it's worth. We enjoy the feeling of quaintness and southern hospitality you get from the people that own these places. As I've mentioned before I would LOVE to own a B and B one day and often practice with my guest bedroom. Most B and B's these days have private baths in all the rooms. Most of the places have separate tables for two in the dining room so you don't have to sit at table with random strangers. I've devised my own rating of the B and B's we've visited the H scale. I would love to introduce you to the top 10 B and B's we've visited over the past 7 1/2 years. The H scale goes from one H to 5 H's, you'll see what I mean. For me I check out the B and B before we make reservations online and the two things that I check for are: Bedding (as seen above) and Bath (as seen below.) I love fresh clean linens and beautiful bathtubs, I love to soak in a hot bath and then snuggle next to my sweetie in like 1000 count sheets.

All right here the list in no particular order, you can go to the website by rolling over the name:

The Blair House score: HHHH, absolutely would call this one my fave, we've been here 3 times and actually these pictures are from that lovely place. It only gets 4 H's because of location, Troy, NC...not much to do in Troy except for be romantic I guess.

Mansfield Plantation score: HHHHH Man was this place nice, bedding, bath, breakfast all nestled just outside of Georgetown, SC. They had bikes and we rode them all around the plantation, saw alligators in the swamp, nice!

Colonial Pines Inn score: HHHH Talk about a shi-shi place to vacate, this B and B is nestled in the heart of Highlands, NC. We loved this place b/c they have a room called the bargain basement, I think it was $80 a night. They decided to keep the same price since 1980 or something. Once again plush down comforter, nice town, the only bad memory was I was 8 months pregnant when we went there and I thought I was having contractions that night, not fun, just a little paranoid.

Cypress House Inn score: HHH This was a fun place it's in Kill Devil Hills, NC. It's right across the street from the beach, the bedding and bath were ok, thus the reason for the score, but the scenery was unbelievable. Interesting fact, when we visited this one I was 5 weeks pregnant, we had just found out. I was so nervous about the cheese in the soufflee.

Cartwright House score HHH, This one is in one of our fav. spots, Oriental, NC. The Cartwright is for sale if you're interested. The bedding was mediocre. She dropped breakfast off at our door which was nice but only gave us coffee to drink, I don't drink coffee. But, there were cruiser bikes to use at your leisure and we've rode all around that town, actually I think we stayed here the first time we went to ONC.

Pilot Knob Inn score HHHH This was the first B and B we ever ventured to, located right near Pilot Mtn, NC. It's cool b/c you stay in your own tobacco barn and each one had a hot tub for two.

Herring Hall score HHHH This is the place we went to this weekend. We loved the innkeeper, the house had been in her family forever. We were the only ones there, which was super fun. The bedding was comfy and the the claw foot tub was a classic to the house. She had a ton of snacks and gave great recommendations.

Outdoors Inn score HHH Located in Manteo, NC. This one actually was like a part of their house, we could hear their kids watching tv and the food wasn't that great. BUT, they had free kayaks and we kayaked ourselves all around the inlets near Manteo.

Admiral Fell Inn score HHHH This is the only hotel that makes the list. We went to Baltimore last Christmas and this is where we stayed. This hotel was so posh, the furnishings just made it feel like a B and B. And it was smack in the middle of Fells Point, which is home of Bertha's Mussels and a hole lot of bars, but fun!

The Chalet Inn score HHH We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary here. The bedding and surroundings were beautiful, but they played on the Chalet theme a bit too much and came to breakfast in Leider Hosen (sp) and served cold cuts and poached eggs.

Well, there you go I forgot to mention that most of the B and B's we frequent cost anywhere from $100 to $150 a night but it is well worth the money, I promise. We have also been to about a handful of B and B's that I would not recommend, but I guess everyone has there hang ups. Do you have a favorite spot to visit, I'd love to know!!

Matt and I dropped the kid off at Grandma and Grandpa's house yesterday and headed out for a little bit of much needed r and r. We went to Natural Bridge, Va, cool town, great B and B (more to come on that in a minute,) saw FoamHenge, ate yummy food at the Pink Cadillac Diner, saw and collected beautiful fall leaves, hiked a wee bit on the Appalachian trail and just loved on each other, what fun!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Matt, Matt's mom, Matt's Brother Ben and I think even Grandma Byrd have piebaldism (lack of skin pigment in certain spots.) We've been waiting to see if Ollie would have "the mark." We've noticed in the past few weeks the faint resemblance of a white spot on Ollies left cheek. What do you think, has he been blessed with Daddy's kiss? And no he's not smoking in these pictures, just kickin' it with a sucker.

In other Ollie news, he learned two new words this week: silly, I was dancing in the car this afternoon and he said, "silly mommy. " And the other word is funny. He and I were having a "fun" shouting contest earlier this week and he put his hand on his chest and said, funny. Yeah, Olls you are turning out to be quiet a funny little guy, heart ya!!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

We have a small house. Ollie's room I guess takes up about 150 of our 1200 square feet. Because of the quaintness of our pad and the location of our bedroom to Olls room I am hereby proposing my Brilliant Idea #2: The sleep in basket.

Yes, I've been plotting this one for a while now. See b/c of the above mentioned smallness of our home, some mornings, well, mainly Saturdays and Sundays we would love to be able to sleep in just a little bit more than usual. Well, our sweet little guy doesn't know quite what that means yet. So what would happen is after Ollie has gone to sleep we tip toe into his room and hook on the sleep in basket (bicycle basket with wide hooks, no sharp edges.) The basket is filled with stuffed animals, books and maybe one or two non-eye poking out toys. So when he wakes up ready to play he is greeted with lots of fun and maybe just maybe mommy and daddy can catch a few more conversations with Mr. Sandman and then get up and go have breakfast at the Chaos Cafe!!!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Our weekend started with a nice Friday evening stroll around the bog gardens. Ollie was calling for the ducks, they were missing, maybe they've already flown south. Notice the lovely gaze in my eyes, I had some kind of wicked bug on Friday, I had to leave work early, not pretty, but I'm all better now.

This morning we headed to the coolest playground I've ever seen in Burlington with our friends Greg, Lucy and their dog Scout. I'm telling you this playground was worth the drive. Ollie had tons of fun and met lots of new friends.

Here's Ollie and Scout, in a perfect world Ollie would have a doggie and a horsey by his side at all times! Happy Saturday to you and yours!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Ok, hear me out on this one. We have a one point five year old, as do many of our friends. And if you are a parent of a young child you know that eating dinner out is not as much fun as it used to be, sigh! If I was independently wealthy here is the business plan I would propose: Chaos Cafe.

Chaos Cafe the place where kids can be kids and adults can be adults at the same time. Imagine if you will all the walls are painted with black chalk board paint and colorful buckets of chalk are just sitting around. There are kids sized picnic tables in the corners with coloring books and crayons. My friend Kendra from My First Kitchen could be the chef and it would serve non-chikfila things for the adults like yummy pasta, pizza, salmon burgers, and of course there would be a healthy but yum kids menu. The beauty of the Chaos Cafe is that parent and child are in harmony, the kids eat and then they can go play. And the cafe is intimate enough that you can enjoy your dinner and adult beverage and have a conversation with your friends and your child is just right there having the time of their life as well, simple chaos. It might need to have two sections like: clear runny nose and yellow/green runny nose, but we could work out all those details later.

I actually did read about a place like this in a baby magazine one time, this restaraunt was in California somewhere. So if you live in the greater Greensboro area and have extra dough you want to invest in something...invest me and my family and about 20 of my friends families who dream of a place just like this.

Side note about the graphic, I "borrowed" it from a real Chaos Cafe in Portland, this is a Vegan place that probably doesn't have two seperate runny nose sections, but they do have a cool name and a cool sign if I don't say so myself.